Egg-citing Chef -9yr- Cooking Party Games

For my youngest son, as he was turning nine, he decided that he wanted a Chef Party.  He plans on being a Chef when he grows up and thought he could teach others to like it as much as he does.

For the invitations, we looked all over your party site for ideas, but Nickolas didn't want a recipe invitation, he wanted a menu invitation.  So, I created one using a regular 9x11 piece of card stock.  We used a brochure type design, so that the menu" could be folded into thirds. 

On the front we used a picture of Nick that we made on the computer (a computer character) of a boy with his hair color a Chef's hat his eye color his favorite shirt color and of course his freckles!  The front said "Welcome to Nick's"  "The Perfect Place for a Birthday Bash" and our address was printed in smaller font at the bottom.  Opening up the menu - the first fold had the "Appetizers" on it.  First was "Creative Kids - crafts and ideas joined together to create a matched set to wear.  Cost:  Attending this Grand Opening at Nick's on Friday July 2nd 2010"  Second line was "Fabulous Food & Fun - Three hours of fun and food mixed together with special friends.  Cost:  Three hours of your time from 6pm to 9pm.

On the next fold of the menu was the following:  "Entrees"  "Personal Pan Pizza - Your personal touch - from the dough to the toppings to the eating.  All at your fingertips!"  "Edible Animals - Use Your imagination to create friends from food.  Most creative animal may win a prize!"  "Rad Recipes - Bring along a favorite recipe to share with your friends.  This item is for sharing only - recipes will not be made into food at Nick's." 

The third fold of the menu had the following listed:  "Side Dishes"  "Measure Up - use a common kitchen measuring cup to size up the competition.  Can you measure up?"  "Oh' Waiter! - Are you good with customers?  If so this is the dish for you.  If not you may be all wet!"  "Egg-citing Energy - An egg-cellent opportunity to find out what is inside a favorite breakfast food.  Don't crack up!"  and lastly - "A Cut Above the Rest - can you cut it with the best chef around?  Let's find out.  A chopping good time!"

The fourth fold was the "Desserts"  Listed was the following:  "Cake Decorating Demo - Design a cake.  You choose the colors and the decorations.  Get creative, be a chef!"  Secondly -  "Birthday Boy Bash - Enjoy an amazing creation made by Chef Nick's personal assistant especially made for the Birthday Boy!"  Next:  "Perfect Presents - share with Chef Nick as he enjoys his time in the spotlight getting his "just desserts"."  "Additional information:  If your child will be attending the Grand Opening at Nick's please make a reservation by June 29th to ensure dining space.  Please call (your number).  And lastly on the back of the "menu" we listed the History of Nick's.  It read something like this "History - Nick was born July 4th 2001 in (our hospital).  He is the youngest child to (us).

Nick loves to try out his new recipes in his mom's kitchen.  In addition to his love of cooking and baking Nick is an avid skateboarder star wars fan and a Lego creator.  In the future he hopes to become a chef and own his own restaurant named "Nick's".  You can find a few of his recipes in two local cookbooks Friends of Grove Library and Cooking Up Some Fun with the Lincoln Lanes Youth Bowling League."  (He actually does have recipes in these cookbooks!)  And of course a Parental Disclosure was listed at the bottom of the menu "Parental Disclosure:  Please let us know if your chef has any food allergies."  This was the menu/invitation.  It seems long - but Nick's parties are always big events and his friends couldn't wait to attend.

We had to keep the guest list down to 14 as space didn't allow for more than 12 and we figured that with the party being on a holiday weekend a few might not come (only two didn't show).  Once the party invitations were sent we started looking for decorations.  We turned our living room into a restaurant.  Using three small children's tables and chairs I bought red and white checkered table cloths from the Dollar Store cut them down to cover the tables and placed a vase of fake flowers on each table.  Moved the tables to look like they were placed in a restaurant.  This was cute however once the kids arrived they decided that they wanted the tables put together to form a long table down the center of the room that way they could be a big party and chat with each other.

We took a toy easel and wrote on the chalkboard side - "Nick's" - in really fancy lettering - to look like a name of a real restaurant.  Once the kids started to arrive we took them into our dining room to start with the "Creative Kids" part of the menu.  I had previously purchased white chef hats and different colors kids chef aprons from Oriental Trading Co.  The kids used markers and glitter glue to decorate their aprons and to personalize them.  As they were doing that I took two kids at a time out to the kitchen - to make their personal pan pizzas.  Before the party started I had made up a dozen dough balls and put them into 9" round cake pans.

Once the kids arrived two at a time they played with the dough enough to spread it into the pans and "make" the pizza dough.  Then they had the chance to make a pizza how they wanted it.  I had the following toppings ready for them:  Sauce pepperoni ham sausage pineapple peppers onions mushrooms mozzarella cheese olives and bacon.  They could put as much or as little on that they wanted.  Most only picked cheese and pepperoni but one or two got creative.   I labeled their pizzas and set them aside until we were ready to bake them.

After everyone got a chance to make their pizzas and decorate their aprons and hats we started baking the pizzas and the little chefs went outside to work on their other entrees and side dishes.  My husband helped with the baking while I went outside with the kids.  We started with our "Edible Animals".  The kids used carrots celery pretzel sticks and such to make animals.  We used peanut butter nuts marshmallows snack mix raisins and anything that we could think of to make eyes legs paws etc.  Toothpicks were needed to hold some of the animals together.  This was very cute and time consuming (we took lots of pictures!).  Next we looked at each other's recipes.  Some brought some forgot but everyone got some recipes to take home with them.

After this the personal pan pizzas were ready to eat.  The kids came back inside and enjoyed their creations.  Some finished before others so we moved Nick's "Perfect Presents" to this time.  So while the rest were finishing eating Nick opened his presents.  After eating the little chefs went back outside to finish their "Side Dishes".

First was "Measure Up".  Dividing the kids into two teams they used a measuring cup to fill up a bucket with water - from one end of a line to the other end. During "Oh'Waiter" they had to carry a waiter's tray full of plastic glasses with water - like a relay race up to a certain point in the yard and back again - this was used for speed and to see how much they would or wouldn't spill.

Next was "Egg-citing Energy".  During this game they carried an egg on a plastic spoon in a relay race.  A few eggs were dropped which was to be expected.  They loved this one!  Next was "A Cut Above the Rest".  Using plastic knives still divided into their teams they had to see who could cut fruits and veggies the fastest.  We used things like peppers mushrooms bananas apples and such.  Some were fast others not so fast.  Make sure the knives are plastic - it's safer and more fun this way!

After the games everyone got a cake to decorate.  I had individual cakes already made up and iced with white icing.  I also had bagged colored icing ready for the kids with different tips on them.  I showed them how to decorate a cake using different techniques star tips flowers etc.  Then I let them loose.  They decorated their cakes until there was no icing left in the bags!  By this time it was already 9pm - time to go - however no one touched the Birthday Cake (as we ran out of time) but all were happy because they got to take their own cake along with them.  Nick's cake was made in the shape of a Chef.  Using the Wilton Baby Doll pan and an additional square pan I cut a shape to resemble a chef's hat and put on top of the doll head shape.  Decorated as a chef with white coat and hat and black pants the chef was holding a smaller cake (cupcake) in a baking pan (child's toy) which had Nick's name on it.  Very cute!

At the end of the party all our new little chefs took home their hat apron cake and a bag full of chef goodies including a small cutting board a potato peeler (shaped like a chef) a melon baller (shaped like a chef) measuring spoons and spatula.  We also purchased fake mustaches for everyone to wear - which they put on right before they left so that we could get a last picture.  Everyone had a great time.  Party was 3 hours plus!!  Only thing is that now I have to out-do this party for his next birthday!  Hope you can get some great ideas from this!"